Stephen O’Donovan’s life revolved purely around his Scottish roots. The 32-year-old, American native was influenced greatly by his Scottish father and aunt. His own mother had drowned, just after his 17th birthday. Upon doing research, Stephen found himself to be a very distant relation of the House of Dunkeld, a house that ruled Scotland nearly 1000 years ago.
Walking home from the library one day, he ran into a woman whose aura told him that she was a lying, cold individual. Stephen, normally going for the happier women, asked the woman on a date. The woman, Kennedy, or Persephone smiled, and began to take advantage of Stephen’s kindness, as he reminded her of Hades in a distant physical way. The reason? Unlike Hades, Stephen was kind and nice, so she was attracted to him. Though, despite this, he still reminded her of Hades some way. Within a week, she managed to warp him from being a nice, happy man, to a cold, deceitful one. It was surprisingly easy for the goddess, as he Stephen was partly mad himself. Within a month, the goddess was pregnant with twins, and told Stephen to look after them, no matter how disgusted he could be. During the nine months of Persephone’s pregnancy, two things happened that play an important factor in Jacqueline and Gaven’s lives. The first, Stephen became even more sinister and cold. The second, the goddess left Stephen, only weeks before she was due, leaving him to be enraged at the goddess, causing him to abuse his only child at the time, Francesca.
A few weeks after the departure of the goddess, two cradles appeared onto the doorstep of the O’Donovan household, on the 20th January 1996. Francesca, being 13, and used to the abuse now, was yelled at, to get the post. She did so, and seeing the two children on the doorstep, she called for her father. Stephen was reluctant at first to come to the door, but eventually, he did, and saw the two babies, and a note, neatly placed in the middle, of the left cradle. He read it, and discovered that he had impregnated a goddess, and now had two children with her. After telling Francesca that she had two younger siblings, and seeing the happiness on her face, Stephen was determined to shut out all of the memories that he had made with Persephone, and return to how he used to be. The first ‘act’ that he did, was ask Francesca to name her siblings. So Francesca named them Jacqueline and Gaven.
For the first 5 years of the two demigod’s young lives, it was peaceful. Their father had married a daughter of an English duke, and had a son with her. It remained peaceful until Francesca, who was now 18 and wanted to know why her father had abused her, asked Stephen about his reasoning to abuse her. He simply said that it was Jacqueline and Gaven’s faults; if they hadn’t of been born, he would have never met their mother. This snapped something inside of Francesca. Now finding out that her two, innocent younger siblings had caused her so many years of emotional, mental and physical pain, made her turn cold towards them, mainly towards Gaven. When they were 10, Jacqueline was invited to her sister’s wedding, yet Gaven invitation was excluded. Thinking that his older sister’s behaviour towards him was normal, he acted like her, becoming cold and manipulative. Charlene, Stephen’s wife, always had a soft spot for Gaven, and always made sure that he was OK before Jacqueline and sometimes, but very rarely, Jackson. On their 12th birthday, Jacqueline and Gaven were attacked by a Sphinx, whilst they were in their school’s ‘quiet’ area. At the time, it was only them, and a teacher; Miss Munroe. Not known to them, Miss Munroe was a demi-titan herself and distracted the Sphinx, telling the two to run back to their home, and tell their father about what happened. Jacqueline and Gaven heard Miss Munroe’s final screams, before running into their sister. Jacqueline had been injured by the Sphinx, so Gaven had to bargin with his sister. After a few minutes of pleading for her to help him, Gaven gave up on Francesca, and told her that if she wouldn’t help Jacqueline, he’d do it on his own. Now grabbing his sister’s hand, Gaven dragged Jacqueline in the direction of their house. Now seeing that Gaven would do anything to protect his sister, Francesca felt respect towards her younger brother, and told him that she’d help him, if he told her what had happened.
Gaven explained about the Sphinx and how it had gashed at her. Fortunately for him, Francesca could see the monster and helped the two escape. Upon arriving at their house, Francesca explained to Stephen what happened, and told him to move Jacqueline and Gaven far away from Scotland, and any potential threats. Using some of the money that her father gave her, Charlene moved the family to the US, hoping that there, they’d be safer. For the first few months, they were, and lived happily in Dallas, Texas. Only three, short months later, the twins were attacked by a hellhound. This time, unlike the last, they were semi prepared for it. It happened when they were playing golf in their back garden, so Jacqueline and Gaven already had weapons to use. By this time, Stephen found it only fair on his kids to tell them that they were demigods, not their mother, but he said that she was a goddess of a negative force. He also mentioned about Camp, and how when they wanted to, they could go there and stay either year round, or summer only. That’s when Francesca, who was visiting them for the weekend stepped in, and said that they should go at a later age, perhaps 16 or 17.
After the second attack, the O’Donovan family travelled from State to state, trying to avoid monster attacks. Most of the time, they did, but there was the occasional attack where they got caught up in either fighting, or trying to get away ever quicker. Eventually, on their 17th birthday, their father dropped them off at camp, and told them that they would be moving back to their old family home, in Scotland.
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